Freak was originally released by The Great Western Type Foundry in 1889.

According to Annenberg, Great Western became Barnhart Brothers & Spindler when the Barnhart brothers bought out the Toepfer family in 1868.The plant superintendent, Charles Spindler, became Secretary of the new firm. Specimen books as late as 1899 show the name Great Western alongside the BB&S name.

At some point, prior to 1925, Freak was renamed “Bamboo” by BB&S. It was delisted when BB&S was absorbed by ATF in 1929.